Gate-valve.



No. 724,346. PATBNTED MAR. 31, 1903.

A. SMITH. GATE VALVE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 31, 1903.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS SMITH, OF BRADFORD, RHODE ISLAND.

GATEVALVE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 724,346, dated March 31,1903.

Application fil'ecl .l'anuary 3]; 1903. Serial No. 141,268. (No modeh) To aLZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS SMITH, a citizen of the United States of America, and hav- Valves, of which the following is a specifica tion.

My invention relates more particularly to the class of gate-valves which are required for use on hoppers, storage-bins, and chutes employed in; the handling of coal, broken stone, gravel, or other granular matter; and one of the main objectsof my invention is to so construct a gate-Valve of the sliding or guillotine type that it may be raised with a comparatively short lever and so that one portable lever may be used to open any number of gates. This object I attain by the construction of the guillotine-gate valves, which I will proceed to describe.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of the valve. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, parts being sectioned; and Fig. 3 is a plan, partly in section.

The valve consists of a sliding gate G, on the outer face of which is a ratchet-toothed rack R, with teeth turned down, so that the gate may be lifted up. This gate moves up and down guides S, which are made strong enough to resist the granular mass M behind the gate.

0 is a chute to guide the discharge of the above mass after it has passed the gate. The gate is raised in this case by a separate portable lever L, having a fulcrum end 7L and a claw or hook H, which engages the rack on the gate.

The framework is constructed with a cross-- beam K, on which the fulcrum end of the lever may be rested. By reason of' the pressure of the granular mass behind the gate considerable power is sometimes necessary to move the latter in the slides, and the necessary mechanical advantage is given to the op erator by hooking the hook or claw on the le= ver at the proper distance from the fulcrum, resulting in a comparatively short stroke for the lifting claw or hook. The pitch of the teeth of the rack must be less than the arc of movement of the lifting-claw, so that if the gate is to be opened to any considerable extent it becomes necessary to make several strokes of the lever, lifting the gate perhaps one tooth at each stroke. In order to hold the gate from sliding back when the lever is dropped to engage another tooth, a pa wl must be introduced, which may conveniently be in the shape of a link P, pivoted to the frame and adapted to operate on the same rack to hold the gate against dropping back with the lifting claw or hook of the operating-lever. This pawl not only sustains the gate during thereturn stroke of the lifting-lever, but is of advantage in holding the gate at any de sired height to regulate the discharge of the v stored mass behind it. disengaging thepawl, allowing the gate to fall by'gravity.

I claim as my invention The combination of the fixed frame and chute having guides with a guillotine-gate movable in said guides and having a ratchettoothed rack on its outer face with a holdingpawl and a portable lever carrying a claw to engage the rack on the gate, as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' AUGUSTUS SMITH.

Witnesses:

HUBERT I-IoWsoN, F. WARREN WRIGHT.

The gate is closed by 

